Gigantic meat-eating dinosaur ...( ulates that by coordinating movements ...)

ulates that by coordinating movements, the Mapusaurus pack or family might have been able to hunt the largest dinosaur that ever lived Argentinosaurus, the 40 meter (125 foot long) plant-eater which shared its habitat in central South America 100 million years ago.

The Mapusaurus individuals found ranged in size from slender juveniles 5.5 meters (18 feet) long to a robust adult that exceeded 12.5 meters (40 feet) in length. The fossils include the longest known fibula (shin) bone for any meat-eating dinosaur, slightly longer though less robust than that of its close cousin, Giganotosaurus. The skull of Mapusaurus is lower and lighter than that of its older sister genus, Giganotosaurus, with similar sharp, blade-shaped teeth.

"This is fresh information about the social lives of the largest carnivores on Earth. And its one of the most remarkable of a dozen new species discoveries, many of them gigantic, in the last decade from this region of western Patagonia," says dinosaur enthusiast and dig participant, "Dino" Don Lessem, one of several excavation sponsors, along with the Museo Carmen Funes and the Direccion de Patrimonio de Neuquen, and Amblin/Universal Pictures (via royalties from Mr. Lessem's Jurassic Park exhibitions).

Mapusaurus is named for the word "Earth" in the language of the Mapuches, the Native American tribe of western Patagonia. Its species name roseae refers to the rose-coloured rocks that the specimens were found in and honors the first name of the principal donor of the Argentina-Canada Dinosaur Project.

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Contact: Phoebe Dey
phoebe.dey@ualberta.ca
780-492-0437
University of Alberta
17-Apr-2006

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